New patent lawsuit targets Sixaxis, Wii controllers

A company named Copper Innovation Group has one patent to its name. Luckily, …

These days, it seems that it can be difficult to innovate and release a new product without stepping on someone's patent, and now both Nintendo and Sony are faced with litigation over whether or not their controllers infringe on a patent held by Copper Innovation Group for a "Hand held computer input apparatus and method." The suit was filed in late December and is looking for damages plus interest, legal fees, and for the court to force Sony and Nintendo to cease selling the allegedly infringing controllers and consoles.

You can view the patent for yourself, which was filed for in 1994 and issued in 1996. While the device described bears a slight resemblance to the Wiimote, the actionable aspect of the patent seems to be how the host device designates each controller. "Every transmitter unit has a unique hardware encoded identifying number," the patent states. "When power is first applied to the transmitter, for example when batteries are first inserted, the identifying number is read and stored in Random Access Memory (RAM) in the transmitter. All subsequent communications sent from that transmitter will contain that identifier."

Basically, Copper Innovation is saying that the method in which both Sony and Nintendo determine who is player one and two (and so on) is covered by the patent, and it deserves compensation. Microsoft is not named in the lawsuit and, while the reasoning for that is speculation, its use of proprietary wireless technology in the Xbox 360 may have shielded the company from this litigation.

This suit echoes the lawsuit filed against Sony over the company's use of Immersion's rumble technology in its controllers. Sony fought the lawsuit tooth and nail, but was defeated in court and forced to pay a hefty settlement to Immersion. Microsoft settled for a much smaller sum after deciding not to fight the charges. Whether or not either of these cases had merit is arguable, but clearly there is money to be had in attacking the manufacturers of game consoles if even the appearance of patent impropriety is present.

We'll be following this lawsuit as it plays out in the courts, if it makes it that far, but it's clear that anyone who holds a patent that is even tangentially related to gaming technology may come after Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo at any time.